Plastic Deformations in Mechanically Strained Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

AFM manipulation was used to controllably stretch individual metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). We have found that SWNTs can sustain elongations as great as 30% without breaking. Scanned gate microscopy and transport measurements were used to probe the effects of the mechanical strain on the SWNT electronic properties, which revealed a strain-induced increase in intra-tube electronic scattering above a threshold strain of ~5-10%. These findings are consistent with theoretical calculations predicting the onset of plastic deformation and defect formation in carbon nanotubes.